# 3579
Admittedly, Russia’s Chief Health Officer Gennady Onishchenko has a history of outspoken, sometimes brash statements. In April of 2006, example, he practically predicted a Bird Flu pandemic would hit Russia later that summer.
In recent days he has come under some criticism for his handling of the H1N1 virus, and last week called for a ban on Russian students traveling to England.
Now, he is urging Russians not to travel to Wales for the World Cup Game in September.
First this report, then a few comments of my own.
Onishchenko Tells Football Fans to Skip Game in Wales
04 August 2009The Moscow TimesChief sanitary doctor Gennady Onishchenko — who last week demanded that Russia ban students from traveling to study in Britain because of the swine flu outbreak there — on Monday extended his travel advice to football fans.
Thousands of Russian football fans were expected to travel to Cardiff to attend a 2010 World Cup series game between Russia and Wales on Sept. 9.
Speaking at a news conference, Onishchenko called the trip “unnecessary,” stressing that football fans demonstrate their emotions by shouting and this would help spread the disease at an overcrowded stadium.
Meanwhile, the head of the All-Russia Union of Sports Fans, Alexander Shprygin, recommended that fans who do travel to Wales drink the local whisky to protect themselves from the swine flu and “to get rid of any symptoms,” RIA-Novosti said.
“Amid the global financial crisis, Russian fans will save the whole industry in Britain because the Brits themselves have nearly stopped drinking whisky,” he said.
The notoriously outspoken Onishchenko, whom a deputy prosecutor general criticized last month for not doing more to slow the spread of swine flu in Russia, also said Monday that 55 cases of the illness had been registered in the country. Many of them were brought by travelers from Britain, he said.
Later on Monday, the Russian Travel Industry Union said some fans had already started canceling trips planned around the football match.
“The number of cancellations varies from company to company, but on the whole it has been significant,” spokeswoman Irina Tyurina said, Interfax reported.
Last week, she criticized Onishchenko’s call to ban students from traveling to Britain, calling it a “strange, inappropriate measure.”
Whether appropriate advice or not, this is the sort of impact we can expect to see more of as this pandemic goes along.
Already serious concerns have been raised about this year’s hajj, and other events such as the World Cup, the Superbowl, the 2010 Olympics, Mardi Gras, and Carnival in Rio may all be negatively impacted by this pandemic.
People will think twice about travel. Particularly to foreign countries and aboard airliners.
And it isn’t so much that there is a greater danger of acquiring the virus on a trip than at home, as it is that getting sick on a trip, particularly one to another country, can quickly wreck a very expensive vacation.
I’ve no doubt that a lot of people will travel this fall and winter, and most will do so without incident. We shouldn’t be terribly surprised, however, if some would-be travelers postpone their trips, or decide to stay closer to home this year.
Unfortunately, for venues like Rio, New Orleans, Miami, Vancouver, Durban and others those sorts of decisions could prove costly.
